Thumbprint leads to arrest of Lawndale man as suspect in 1994 Chicago crime

A thumbprint left behind at a Chicago crime scene nearly 18 years ago has finally come back to finger a Lawndale man.

FBI fingerprint experts say Carlos Rosalio Gonzalez, of Lawndale, is really Jose Hernandez Saldana, a man sought since Sept. 15, 1994, for allegedly shooting a man in the back of the head at his estranged wife's house in Illinois, a court affidavit said.

The shooter at the time left a thumbprint at the crime scene. Chicago police quickly determined it belonged to Saldana, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

The victim survived, but Saldana vanished.

Cook County prosecutors quickly charged Saldana with one count of attempted murder. Chicago detectives went looking for him, but attempts to find him were unsuccessful.

Chicago police and FBI investigators determined Saldana probably had fled Illinois and likely was in his native Mexico, the FBI affidavit said.

Unable to find him, police closed the case in January 1996.

That changed in May when Saldana's son got arrested in California. Police impounded the young man's car, the affidavit said.

When Gonzalez, 38, went to collect the vehicle at an impound yard, he presented his driver's license.

That proved to be his undoing.

Shortly thereafter, investigators in the Chicago police cold case unit began re-investigating the attempted murder and learned that Saldana's son had been arrested and that a driver's license was used to release the car.

Investigators at the FBI's Special Processing Center in Clarksburg, W. Va., compared the print used to obtain the driver's license to the Saldana thumb print at the Chicago crime scene and determined they belonged to the same person, the affidavit said.

A federal warrant for Saldana's arrest was issued on July 19 in U.S. District Court in Chicago. He was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

The Los Angeles Fugitive Task Force, composed of agents and officers with the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department, arrested Saldana in Lawndale on July 20.